Essay Winner Alice Rutayisire’s Gifted Hands

January 18, 2017

Recently S5 student Alice Rutayisire entered the IDEA4Africa essay competition…and WON! The prompt was “How do you believe that youth entrepreneurs can best have impact on communities and the country of Rwanda?“

This student is really going places! Last year she won the regional East African Community (EAC) Secretariat Essay Writing competition among students from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. In December, she was one of three Maranyundo students selected to attend the East African Girls Leadership Summit in Kenya organized by Creative Action Institute and Komera.

Below is Alice’s winning essay entitled GIFTED HANDS:

Entrepreneurship is one of the most crucial issues that our country faces in the today world. Principally, it is one factor of production that deals with creativity and innovation, so, it’s an extraction from education both practically and theoretically. But, aside from that, entrepreneurship is an empowerment. It is a breath with a power to build, power to transform, and most of all, the power to change the tables around you. I’m a great believer of one’s inner ability to make something wonderful happen. Instead of proving yourself worthy to anyone, you’d best focus on what you want to conquer. The youth in our country find themselves in this category especially when we lean on fighting against poverty. For all I know, we have the answer around us. Youth entrepreneurs could be farmers. Starting a project, would be like planting seeds on a land they considered fertile. Tending to it, is like watering and embracing its growth. After that step-to-step success, you’d be expecting fruits which are the ones that you, your country and community can enjoy. So, let’s suppose that we, the youth wake up one day determined to start, tend and confide in our creativity: what would change? As positively as this topic inquires, the following would be relevant;

First thing’s first, in all things we’d best achieve, is eradication of poverty. Rwanda as one of the third world, developing countries, still evidently is dependent on many factors for developing. Many citizens would be rich, but also many more poor and yes, the youth are among this class. Consequently, they involve themselves in indecent activities likely to provide them with food on the table. But on the bright side, our country is endowed with many talented youths. The works of the youth’s gifted hands and optimistic hands, can grant them income. Self-employment can help them become financially independent and in this way, they can obtain wealth in a decent way. On the community level, other people around would get employed and in this way, they can survive since their standards are uplifted. Thus, for the country, poverty decreases and therefore the income per capita increases. By the youth coming together and following this trend, we’d guarantee a great future for not only our families but also a step to the community and state at large.

It should also be stressed that, youth entrepreneurs can promote the country’s economy. Our entrepreneurialism filled with our creativity and innovation, can also contribute to the government’s income through taxes. Consequently, public hospitals that young and the old count on, schools we get knowledge from and even industries that give us our aspirations can be built from us, the youth. How would you feel like to see your country building up strong and titanic? See a road built for everyone to displace comfortably? Adding up, these projects and businesses the youth could work on, would give a unique taste to their communities. For Example, when different businesses are displayed: restaurants, galleries, mechanics and much more, which locally the community escalates to development in that routine. Hence, much positive developmental maintenance of our communities that consequently brings up a strong nation.

Furthermore, youth entrepreneurialism can be a great help in charity and philanthropic events. The journey an entrepreneur can decide to take, has many ups and downs but what matters, is using that as the fuel to keep running on the race. Success is likely to be achieved and so is expansion and eventually your wings will fly. That is when you help those whose wings are broken and have no hope of living up to see what tomorrow brings. Youth successful entrepreneurs can also go for charity, donations and missions to save their communities by helping the needy, orphans, handicapped, disabled and all who need help. They always say that when you give away the positive light in you, that same energy back to you. Seeing a hopeful, happy community, is what Rwanda needs and we can still do this at a young age for a shower of blessings awaiting down our generations.

Finally, youth entrepreneurs can satisfy the people’s needs in terms of standard production and servicing. Thanks to our hard work, we, the youth, can strive for production of goods and services our communities and even country, lacks. These sterling services and products can satisfy the public with utility uses which opens the doors to more innovation for more standard production. Undoubtedly, this will raise the youth’s works and recognition nationwide. The journey doesn’t stop there though. We could also extend these standardized goods and services to an international level, our country has currently since we, the youth can try to manufacture things on our own. Hence, a favorable developed business atmosphere.

Wrapping all these in one nutshell, youth entrepreneurship is a weapon our country can use against underdevelopment. In the demonstrations above, we’ve seen how the youth together can make Rwanda a better than bitter place. This is all because there is a guarantee for poverty eradication, economic growth and utility satisfaction. In whatever way possible, youth entrepreneurship can grow into a huge baobab tree with many fruits that taste like prosperity. This is much better than when the youth of our country are the ones who commit crime, robbery, prostitution, drug abuse and getting involved in useless activities and unproductive acts that only diminish their capabilities. For the youths that find entrepreneurship hard and discouraging, it’s certainly not but entrepreneurial success doesn’t require only a single formula. It needs a clear, creative mind, a patient and determined heart and most of all, the striving and hardworking hands. To keep this journey going, we should never keep success in our heads nor failure in our hearts.

Our leaders have a reason to empower the youth because of mainly two reasons:-we are able to run this. And most of all, Rwanda’s development doesn’t need a person miles away. It begins from the youth – From you and I!!